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Federal government says train crossing met safety standards

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An OC Transpo double-decker bus, with the front of the vehicle sheared off following a collision with a Via Rail train on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (credit: TSBC/Flickr)Transportation Safety Board of Canada

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A Via Rail train following a collision with an Ottawa city bus on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (credit: TSBC/Flickr)

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The side of a Via Rail train following a collision with an Ottawa city bus on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (credit: TSBC/Flickr)

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A police officer investigates at the scene of a Via Rail train and city bus collision in Ottawa's west end Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

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Officials investigate at the scene of a Via Rail train and city bus collision in Ottawa's west end Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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A passenger is taken from the scene of a Via Rail train and city bus collision in Ottawa's west end Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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Workers survey the scene following a bus and train collision in Ottawa's west end, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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A city bus is seen following a collision with a Via Rail train in Ottawa's west end Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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A double-decker bus is viewed after it collided with a passenger train at a crossing in a suburb of Canada's capital on September 18, 2013.AFP PHOTO/MICHEL COMTEMICHEL COMTE/AFP/Getty Images

OTTAWA — The federal government says the site of this week’s fatal collision between an Ottawa city bus and a Via Rail train met existing safety standards, adding that authorities never applied for funding under a special federal improvement program for railway crossings.

Transport Canada said in a statement that it contributed about $4 million in 2005 through a federal infrastructure fund for an extension of a dedicated bus lane that included work on the grade crossing where the bus slammed into a passenger train Wednesday, killing six.

“This crossing met all safety requirements,” said Transport Canada in a statement. “Authorities have never submitted an application for this crossing under the Transport Canada’s Grade Crossing Improvement Program.”

The department said that the authorities eligible to apply could either be the city or the railway authority.

The City of Ottawa had considered building a underpass or overpass at the crossing, but opted instead to improve warning signs and signals because of the estimated cost of the separated crossing, and opposition from nearby residents to an overpass.

Transport Canada was not immediately able to answer questions about whether it has delayed plans to introduce new regulations to improve safety at crossings where trains intersect with road vehicles. But speaking to reporters at an event in Oakville, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said the department had been working on the regulations for a number of years, and was looking to unveil them in the coming months.

In the meantime, she said it has been investing in improvements at key grade crossings.

“We’ve been in consultation with industry and municipalities (about the regulations) because they are the ones who are going to have to implement them,” said Raitt, appointed as transport minister in July. “I expect that we will be moving as quickly as we can with respect to these regulations, and in fact, the regulations are in drafting right now. So it takes a while to draft several aspects of it but I can tell you this is an incredibly important aspect of going forward with respect to rail safety and we have our full attention on it.”

She also said that the industry shouldn’t wait for the regulations to address safety risks since it should know what will be expected.

In its own internal briefing notes, the department warned Raitt’s predecessor, Denis Lebel, about vulnerabilities in its general oversight of transportation safety.

Accidents between passenger trains and vehicles at these crossings have been on a Transportation Safety Board of Canada watchlist for years, with more than 250 accidents reported over the past decade.

Transport Canada told its incoming minister in May 2011 briefing notes that 80 per cent of public crossings on the Quebec-Windsor passenger rail corridor were equipped with a warning system with gates.

The department told Postmedia News on Thursday evening that 95 per cent of public crossings on the corridor were now equipped with a warning system but didn’t specify whether they had gates.

The internal briefing notes, released through access to information legislation, said that the department had been criticized for lack of oversight on its emerging safety management systems in different modes of transportation, which required it to “partner with the transportation industry to collaboratively identify, develop and implement appropriate risk controls” to “address emerging safety issues before they become problems.”

The transport minister was also told in those briefing notes that the department’s existing oversight was inadequate.

“The current safety oversight system is vulnerable to increases in traffic as the existing suite of policy instruments has limitations and diminishing returns that need to be addressed,” the minister was told in the briefings. “The public’s expectation for strict regulation and zero-risk tolerance run counter to the transportation industry’s demands for reduced regulatory and administrative burden in order to remain competitive in an ever-increasing global marketplace.”

The department faced similar questions about its safety oversight record over the summer in the aftermath of the deadly Lac-Megantic runaway train disaster that killed dozens of people in an explosion that destroyed buildings in the small Quebec town.

Raitt described the accident on Wednesday as a “terribly tragic event” on Twitter and said she had appointed a special observer to monitor the investigation, helping to share timely information required to make decisions on safety issues.

This is a terribly tragic event. Transport Canada officials are onsite. #Barrhaven